5 Underutilized Office Characters Who Left Us Wanting More

The basic success of a television comedy is almost always directly related to how funny audiences find the main characters. Viewers need a consistently good reason to tune into a show, and an overwhelming majority of the time, that reason comes from the lead actors. After a certain level of success is achieved, however, a funny thing starts to happen. The hardcore fans not only start to get really excited about the supporting staff and the recurring players, they start to cite them as the very reason for the comedy’s overall greatness. For example: if you ask a hardcore Seinfeld fan what’s great about the show, they’re just as likely to mention David Puddy and Frank Costanza as they are Jerry. If you ask a hardcore Arrested Development fan, they’ll point to Gene Parmesan and Carl Weathers. That’s the true hallmark of an all-time classic beloved comedy, which is why it should surprise no one that The Office, in the lead-up to its finale, has launched more than a few Cinema Blend debates among the writers about characters we wish we’d gotten a little bit more of.

Some characters are better in small doses. Like a great Jim Halpert prank, they swoop in unexpectedly, cause maximum havoc and disappear as soon as the gag begins to get old. Other characters, however, could have given us a little bit more if they’d been given the chance. We could all argue until Dwight’s roosters crow about which characters fall into which camp, but for the purposes of time, I’ve identified 5 characters from The Office’s run which I wish had gotten at least a few more storylines during the show’s run. You can take a look at my choices below...

1. Josh Porter

Josh is everything Michael Scott is not. He’s the type of guy you’d want to put in front of stockholders or introduce to your parents. He has social grace and sophistication, even if he also has a Call Of Duty addiction. That’s why it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that Jan and company initially choose him to oversee the merged offices back in Season 3. Of course, he winds up leveraging his position to go to Staples and in doing so, proves a valuable lesson to Jim. Michael might be a first class dumbass, but he’s basically a really good guy.

Josh’s basis purpose on The Office might be to facilitate the transfer, but he’s actually full of enough quirks that he should have had a longer arc. From biking a stupid amount of time everyday to engaging in a friendly rivalry with Michael, his presence was definitely a benefit to the larger show.